Well, here it is: the story that everyone's talking about. From ESPN.com:

Federal authorities have filed court documents outlining an alleged dogfighting operation at a property owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick… Vick is not named in the documents. Additionally, Vick is unlikely to be indicted in the dogfighting federal investigation, according to information gathered by the NFL and Atlanta Falcons, sources tell ESPN's Chris Mortensen. The authorities have told the Falcons and league that there has not been any evidence that can be tied to Vick with the alleged dogfighting ring, the sources said.

Oh wait, that was the story from last week. Helluva scoop, Mort. Here's the new story:

NFL star Michael Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday on charges of sponsoring a dogfighting operation so grisly the losers either died in the pit or sometimes were electrocuted, drowned, hanged or shot.

If convicted, Vick and the three others charged in the operation could face up to six years in prison and $350,000 in fines, which could totally cut into Vick's weed intake, possibly harshing his buzz. But we all know that won't happen. Vick's a famous athlete, and famous athletes can do anything without repercussion. He'll plea down to a misdemeanor, and the worst punishment he'll face is the suspension from Der Kommissar Herr Goodell. And If I'm wrong, I'll eat my hat. I fashioned it out of Cool Ranch Doritos, so it will be a delicious mistake.

By the way, is it 6 years and 350K per dog??? or is that a sum total of all the shit?

Because didn't they take around 50 dogs from that place?

07.18.07 at 9:40 am

doogieinrichmond

Great pic!! Another one bites the dust!! What a waste of frieken oxygen! Sucks as a quarter back, and sucks as a dog handler!

07.18.07 at 9:41 am

whowillsexmutombo

Since he's obviously not going to see the inside of a prison cell, I genuinely hope that he tears an MCL in week one of the pre-season, then gets a very bad infection while in the hospital. And that they never find a cure for Herpes. And that one of the With Leather readers in Atlanta takes a little initiative and burns Vick's house down. I'm not saying any more, except to add that in theory, if Vick's house burned down, 48 hours later there would probably be a brown duffel bag filled with $10,000 in the 3rd stall of the McDonalds off of the 404.

07.18.07 at 9:44 am

Lloyd_Carr_Pool_Lane

Atlanta, Welcome your new starting quarterback….Joey Blueskies!! He's a better piano player than football player!!

07.18.07 at 9:46 am

throwbot

FREE OOKIE!

07.18.07 at 9:46 am

Weed Against Speed

"Mr. Blank, sorry to bother you but there is a Daunte Culpepper on line two and he says it's urgent."

07.18.07 at 9:50 am

swanychitown

Excellent example of ESPN doing what they do to protect these assholes.

07.18.07 at 9:52 am

sheedshair

Congratulations Michael Vick. You've managed not only to be indicted for a dogfighting operation, but also to steal all the glory from Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence in upcoming sequal, Life 2: We're Back In

great pic. i alos vick tears his mcl, but i hope a pit bull tears it for him.

07.18.07 at 10:04 am

lieutenant winslow

thank god the Falcons still have Schaub

07.18.07 at 10:08 am

Andy_Roddicks_Spleen

Goodell 11:35- Portis wept.

07.18.07 at 10:08 am

grungedave

I'm not sure the Home Depot dude can fix this for Ookie.

07.18.07 at 10:12 am

mynamehere

Awesome pic! Please, Vick is a pro athlete and celebrity. He'll cop a plea and just get a suspension from playing. Real jail time? Not a chance. Not to mention the $350,000 is probably what he spends on gold chains in a week, boo hoo.

07.18.07 at 10:17 am

sheedshair

@LCPL

I think that Vick's production of Jailhouse Jock would in fact make him more NOW than anyone else, or at least dish him a #1 seed. But that would have to be put into debate in the middle of Sportscenter to determine which is more "now." It's all bs anyway, this "now" stuff. We all know those "NOW!" cd's always came out a year too late.

07.18.07 at 10:17 am

Kaiszer Soze

3rd stall of the McDonalds off of the 404.

Is this a setup? Because if I get there and Marcus Vick is in the parking lot, brandishing firearms like we know he loves to, Im going to be mighty pissed.

07.18.07 at 10:18 am

Enrico Pallazzo

This pic sucks, I think we all want to see what that cool ranch Dorito hat looks like. And if you're selling them, I'll take 10.

07.18.07 at 10:22 am

whowillsexmutombo

Kaiszer:

I'm not saying it's true, I'm not saying it's false. I'm just sayin' is all. And to be very clear: I have no affiliation with Marcus Vick.

Also, in the 3rd stall, the bag will probably be behind the toilet.

07.18.07 at 10:22 am

grungedave

cool ranch Doritos hats?

did Ufford steal Vick's "stash"?

07.18.07 at 10:25 am

I'm Keith Hernandez

What a P.O.S. Vick is.

I say we electrocute him, drown him, hang him, and shoot him. Then we kill him!!

Bikers in the background: Yeah!!

07.18.07 at 10:25 am

Aggrieved

Being stuck in Atlanta (no, I'm not burning any houses; I'm not allowed within 50 feet of accelerants anymore), I have no choice but to watch the Falcons if I want to get my football fix. I've no interest in the Falcons, so the games are boring as hell, but seeing Joey Harrington as the #1 quarterback would add a lot of trainwreck-quality fun to the games.

07.18.07 at 10:26 am

Grimey

"Does Michael Vick have to choke a bitch?"

07.18.07 at 10:28 am

Lloyd_Carr_Pool_Lane

Grimey: or drop a bitch, or shoot a bitch, or electrocute a bitch..

07.18.07 at 10:35 am

phony gwynn

Also, I know David Kircus there cuz I'm a Broncos fan, but who's the other cracker?

07.18.07 at 10:38 am

TEXAS

You aint nothin but a hound dog, Fightin all the time. You aint nothin but a hound dogFightin all the time. Well, you ain't never won a fight, I'll bury you in a field of mine.

Sorry, "Elvis Vick" wrong song.

07.18.07 at 10:38 am

Putridstinkstar

Mort's an ass.

07.18.07 at 10:41 am

donniebrosto11

Well you can take the scumbag out of the hood, but never the hood out of the scumbag evidently…

07.18.07 at 10:48 am

el hombre

If Ray Lewis got away with murder, and he's God's linebacker, and Vick gets away with Dogfighting, does that make him Doggie Heaven's Quarterback?

07.18.07 at 10:49 am

Tim

Keith Hernandez: I say we let him go.

Feds have a 95 percent conviction rate.

07.18.07 at 10:50 am

grungedave

Vick better start studying up on the penal league's version of the West Coast offense. Throwing passes at prisoner #4786427's feet may have much more severe consequences than bouncing one to Brian Finneran.

07.18.07 at 11:01 am

WeakSideWing11

I'm just worried about what this dirtbag's brother is going to do to top him, first the STD spreading Vs. alcohol to minor girls and weed charge. Then shooting fantasy owners in the foot Vs. leg stomp… now this… we better bulletproof everything with a pulse in miami.

In order to get the dogs crazed for their matches, he would fetch with them…only he would severely underthrow them 75% of the time, frustrating them to the point where they were ready to maul other dogs.

07.18.07 at 11:39 am

Logjammin'

* sorry…"play fetch"

Man I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue

07.18.07 at 11:42 am

Pauly

Looks like Ron Mexico stepped in some dog shit he can't get off his shoe.

07.18.07 at 11:43 am

Lloyd_Carr_Pool_Lane

Tim: Ummmmm….maybe…..why? Do you have a request?

07.18.07 at 11:53 am

Otto Man

Who wants to bet that as a courtroom strategy, Vick tries to run a bootleg?

07.18.07 at 12:22 pm

Vanilla Thunder

I like my Doritos hats to be nacho cheese.

07.18.07 at 12:42 pm

donniebrosto11

You dead dog. You electrocuted dog. – Elija Dukes

07.18.07 at 3:31 pm

Golf_is_a_sport?

Saw this on a tech forum:

The earlier thread on Mike Vick and dogfighting is not off topic at all, and I urge all readers of this Forum to think about how this can affect us out on the road. While it is a criminal and societal issue at its core, it also directly affects our interests as sportsmen and women. What Vick is alleged to do and the others have been convicted of doing is nothing short of the same misery purveyed by meth dealers, pedophiles and terrorists on humanity. My opinion is strongly focused by personal experience: In January, 2006 I was attacked by two pit bulls while out riding my bike on a training route with my workmate. This didn’t take place in some rural back-forty farm, in an inner city alley, or some gang’s ‘hood. It was on one of the most exclusive roads overlooking the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, in a neighborhood of family homes mixed with the estates of Los Angeles’ elite class. We rounded a corner while climbing a hill and the dogs attacked, without provocation, from a blind spot. My friend sprinted to safety; I am lucky to still have my right foot.

The dogs were a breeding pair. The owner claimed that the dogs were friendly, loving family animals. The female was nursing pups at the time, though for whatever reason, the animals had decided to claw through two significant fences to escape their yard and roam the neighborhood. Pasadena animal control captured the dogs in a private elementary school’s playground a few hours after my attack, and all were thankful that this happened on a Sunday when no children were present.

It seems we can’t go more than a couple days before an attack is in the news nationally or locally here in the LA area. The important aspects that should not be lost are that I, much like other fighting dog attack victims, are not in the wrong place at the wrong time, we did not goad the animal for it to happen, and that not every dog gets “one free bite” before it gets labeled “vicious.” Pit bulls and Presas are bred for the sole reason that two are to be placed into an enclosure and only one comes out. Whether nurtured by their masters for game, or simply expressing their dominant genetic traits, these dogs are time bombs without a fail safe switches, and no way to defuse once the timer hits zero.

The cottage industry that supports dogfighting is no less organized than any good narcotics ring or child exploitation network: Lurking just beneath the surface of legitimacy in backyards in Virginia, Pasadena—wherever the perpetrators can root and seemingly live in the mainstream. Its not supposed to happen in your neighborhood or where you ride, yet it does with increasing frequency. And more often than not there are severe consequences that destroy lives in the process.

I don’t sleep more than three hours at a time without reliving the attack in nightmares. And not the kind you wake yourself from and pass off as a dream; the kind where your heart accelerates out of your chest like a rocket as the monsters rip the muscles and sinew from your ankle, leaving it a sinewy shredded mass of carne asada and blood clots dripping from your leg. Worse still are the PTSD symptoms I have been in counseling for since the attack. The panic, anger, loathing, and depression have been a debilitating, at times insurmountable hurdle in my personal and professional life.

The bankrollers and advocates of dogfighting are irredeemable, projecting their rage and sociopathic needs into their biological weapons. Most of these— like Davon Boddie and others in Mike Vick's posse — are otherwise insignificant garbage piles whose lives are like drunk driving car wrecks left in high school parking lots the week before prom night: Cautionary tales so that your kids make better choices than those who failed before them. It is the pit bull, rather than any measure of self-accomplishment or contribution to society, that makes Davon Boddie anything more than a forgettable punk. Brings him respect and street cred. A playa at the top of a food chain.

Why would Vick bankroll Boddie? My theory is they are one and the same, leeching off each others’ depravity to live vicariously in the others’ shoes. Davon Boddie: To have the fame, wealth, access to sex, and reputation that comes with being an A-list clutch player in the league. Mike “Ron Mexico” (look up his alias on Google) Vick: To be the kingpin at the top of a gangsta empire. These two don’t just need each other— they need to be each other. This is exactly the relationship I see in the assailants whose dogs nearly killed me and others, and their dogfighting customers whose perversions they supply and for which they are rewarded.

The cost of dogfighting is a seven year-old girl with a pound of skin grafts on what’s left of her face where a pit bull used her as a chew toy. It is a nine year-old boy sewn back together like a doll from discarded rag parts just so his parents could have an open casket funeral. It is people like me who struggle to make sense of vicious, random violence that forever changes us physically and mentally.

The posterchild of dogfighting is Mike Vick, who desperately needs five-to-seven with his buddies in a State pen to learn what it really means to be the alpha dog in the exercise yard where there’s no sideline to run to, nowhere a pathetic coward like him can hide. If you live in a community that is thinking of tighter controls or banning fighting dog breeds, as Denver has successfully done, I urge you to speak your mind to your riding peers, friends, neighbors, and representatives. It is a matter of animal welfare, our safety, and our ability to live and ride peacefully in the communities we call home.

07.18.07 at 3:40 pm

Angel Eyes Van Cleef (for now)

Arghh! Espy flashback. Too many words.

07.18.07 at 5:17 pm

littles

This is a message to let you know that this post was featured on Comcast Sportsnet's Washington Post Live on Wednesday, July 18. Thank you for providing us with some great content!

07.18.07 at 5:50 pm

twoeightnine

The mystery man is Jared Allen.

07.18.07 at 8:10 pm

PreSchoolGGW

" Pit bulls and Presas are bred for the sole reason that two are to be placed into an enclosure and only one comes out. Whether nurtured by their masters for game, or simply expressing their dominant genetic traits, these dogs are time bombs without a fail safe switches, and no way to defuse once the timer hits zero."

This is the biggest pile of horseshit I've ever heard in my life. Don't bring this trash onto WithLeather, it's fucking irresponsible, and not in a good way like linking to pictures of Allison Stokke.

07.19.07 at 6:22 am

Lloyd_Carr_Pool_Lane

Can Matt impose a word maximum for comments?? That much reading makes my brain all hurty…

07.20.07 at 5:09 pm

UES007

@pre-school. I think that the author meant to qualify that they are bred by 'the offenders' to fight and kill each other. I don't think it's a reflection of their natural breeding tendencies. Or, responsible breeding tendencies.